What were you like in High School, and how have you changed?

[TheTelephone]

High School being ages 13-18ish. OR, (if you're still around those ages) what were you like 5 years ago, and where do you think you'll be 5 years from now?

I just think it's interesting to hear about what people were like when they were younger, and how they've grown. God knows how different I am; I was always trying so hard to fit in anywhere, just anywhere at all. It's kind of embarrassing thinking back on it, but I'm nearing 28 in a few weeks, so it's more funny to me than embarrassing.

I played sports and liked drawing/painting in high school, but because of that none of the jocks really liked me (because I was some weird art kid) and none of the art kids like me (because I was some stupid jock), so I kind of didn't really have any friends at all initially. I tried dying my hair blue (temporary dye, because I was waaaaay to self conscious to dye it permanently) to fit in with the punk kids, I tried dressing preppy to fit in with the preppy kids, but nothing seemed to work. I was shy by default, so I just had a really, really tough time fitting in anywhere.

By the end of high school, friends just kind of happened and I became good friends with people that had similar interests, but it was sooo hard finding friends at first, and it was suuuuch a big deal to me at the time.

I think it was good for me, though; I learned to see people the way they really are, and not just by what they wear or who they hang out with. Some of the preppy kids were actually genuinely nice and thoughtful people, some of the jocks were genuinely smart and had really good hearts, and some of the art kids were really just superficial d-bags that were super full of themselves. I think the worst thing you can do is judge someone before you actually meet them; it's easy to forget that every living, breathing person on Earth has had a totally different but equally complex life experience, and it's way too easy to just judge someone and disregard them as just another jock, prep, bro, nerd, etc. We seem to treat each other so terribly sometimes, but the older I get the more I realize that there are a lot of people out there that are thoughtful than vice versa, and that keeps me pretty optimistic.

Anyways, what were you like in High School, and how have you changed? What have you learned by growing older? What did you used to take so, so seriously when you were younger that now just seems silly in retrospect?

Sorry if this is too off topic for this forum. Still feeling out all the rules.

[Retro Wolf]

School sucks, it gets so much better when it ends. Virgins get laid, fat kids get thin, and the ugly girl gets hot.

I was a fat kid, I didn't realise how fat I was until I saw an old picture years later.
Now I'm married with a mortgage, a full time job and a kid! Awesome!

[Baron]

....and it's way too easy to just judge someone and disregard them as just another jock, prep, bro, nerd, etc.

High school kids like easy, from classes to money to girls.   So of course they judge someone on the easiest criteria possible.  I remember not just the categories you mentioned, but also browners, chockos, skids, speds, narks, tweezocks, flirbs, and the dreaded klingons.  But I digress....

Anyways, what were you like in High School, and how have you changed? What have you learned by growing older? What did you used to take so, so seriously when you were younger that now just seems silly in retrospect?

While I was there, I considered high school to be prison.  You couldn't really trust people, you certainly couldn't trust the wardens, occasionally people got robbed or beat up, and the cold sterile walls and rule obsessed Gestapo slowly leached your soul away.  I actually kept a tally of the days until I would be released from The Institution.    So how does a rational being behave in such a situation?  I kept pretty quiet, kept to myself except for the occasional alliance of convenience, and worked my ass off to get out of that shit hole.  And in the end, they even let me out early for good behaviour -weren't they kind? 

Now I'm not saying I wouldn't have been a "loner" by disposition otherwise, but high school certainly helped to reinforce those character traits in me.  In retrospect the inmates, er, students were all just scared confused weirdos like me, but I still loathe what the system made us become to each other.  Of course, without the motivation of escaping such a dystopic pit of misery I probably wouldn't have become the hardened self-reliant radical libertarian that everyone has come to know and love these days , so like the military or finishing school I guess it functions as a necessary evil that makes a man out of you. Still, it'd be cool if they just stranded you on an island somewhere and told you that if you could figure out how to escape within four years they'd give you a diploma.    

[Adeel]

School sucks, it gets so much better when it ends. Virgins get laid, fat kids get thin, and the ugly girl gets hot.

So fucking true...

I'll wait for others to post their stories first. I'll post mine soon but not yet.

[monkey424]

What was I like in high school? ... An awkward teenager.

Now? ... Still an awkward teenager. But I'll grow up one day!   

[Tabata]

I was younger - much younger! 

    ... and I changed to older - much older     

   but still trying hard not to lose some of my childish childlike moods and behaviors   

[LimpingFish]

I quit school at fifteen...and look at me now!

...

Don't look at me!

[Mouth for war]

Oh those glorious days...or not...I was a complete douchebag...picking fights with anyone and anything. Got sent to the principals office on a weekly basis... bringing weapons to school and going to school or to schoolrealted stuff drunk etc. and after all "class meetings" we had every week my main teachers almost always wanted me to stay because I had done something bad they needed to discuss with me. If I could I would go back in time and give myself such a beating haha. I used to take a shitload of narcotic pills and consuming a lot of alcohol...becoming batshit insane.Sometimes I wonder how I can still be alive after all that self abuse I've done...

I'm a much nicer guy now I haven't been drunk for over 1,5 year (I thank my awesome girlfriend for that) and these days I work with young people in a place where they come to hang out after school. I try to be some kind of a rolemodel now and I think I'm doing a pretty good job with them...I have a lot of experience with the bad side of life and I'm more than happy to help troubled youngsters any way I can

[TheTelephone]

Dude, that's AWESOME that you came back from that! Drugs + puberty = incredibly volatile decisions. I wonder about all the times where my life could've really permanently taken a turn for the worst, like something that you can't come back from. Fortunately, you eventually grow up and realize how your actions effect others, but there are a lot of kids that don't grow up to realize that. Congrats on being sober, too!

[Stupot]

In my first two years of secondary school I was smart, good at the work and teachers were telling my parents things like "your son will grow up to be a lawyer or something". But, it was a shit school, I had no friends and I was bullied on a daily basis for reasons I still don't understand. We moved house and I spent the rest of my secondary school days at a better school... But better school meant I was no longer the 'budding lawyer' but just an average kid. Turned out I wasn't that bright after all. I pretty much stopped getting bullied, apart from the usual stick my sister and I got for being the new kids.  But it took a while to properly make friends, and I never really felt like I was part of the circle even when I did have friends.  I was a bit of a weird cross between 'shy loner' and 'class clown'. I didn't have the confidence to be constantly jokey and chatty, so I would just randomly pipe up once in a while with some funny phrase or pun with varying results. I couldn't talk to girls, even girls I didn't fancy.

How have I changed? Not much really? I mean the words that most describe high school me are "awkward and average x-files" fan and that never really changed, but I do have a girlfriend which is something I didn't have in high school. And I guess I have had some different experiences, having spent time in Japan and met many different people, but I think I'm fundamentally the same person... For better or worse.

[Mouth for war]

Thanks the telephone :-) yeah my life is much better now. Sorry to hear about your stuff stupot. It is hard in that age to not have any friends. Glad you got a gf now